Budget Legislation Requires That “Administrative” Contracts Be Provided To And Posted By The Town Clerk

Buried in the nearly 900 page document which is the biennial budget legislation are two sentences that impose a new requirement on boards of education. Specifically, Section 157 of Public Act 17-2 from the June Special Session provides:…

State Supreme Court Holds that Private School had Duty to Warn and Protect Students Against Risk of Serious Insect-Borne Disease When Organizing Trip Abroad

On August 11, 2017, the State of Connecticut Supreme Court delivered its decision in Munn v. Hotchkiss School, SC 19525 (Conn. 2017), holding that the state’s public policy does not preclude imposing a duty on a school to warn about or…

State Supreme Court Holds that Private School had Duty to Warn and Protect Students Against Risk of Serious Insect-Borne Disease When Organizing Trip Abroad

On August 11, 2017, the State of Connecticut Supreme Court delivered its decision in Munn v. Hotchkiss School, SC 19525 (Conn. 2017), holding that the state’s public policy does not preclude imposing a duty on a school to warn about or…

Kim Fullbright, who has been the interim UC Ombuds since Lillian Santa Maria retired, has been confirmed for the job. Here is today's campus announcement from Debra Merchant, Vice President of Student Affairs:I am pleased to…

For the past three years, Veronica Walker has been served as the Ombuds for the 2,500 students at the growing commuter campus in central Georgia. Walker is a biology lab coordinator and volunteers in the Ombuds role. She says that she cares…

The International Ombudsman Association has posted a YouTube video that addresses the Weinstein Effect and #MeToo Campaign. The video, was produced by IOA's Communications Committee in just a few days and feels like a potentially…

If You Like This Blog, Oppose The End of Net Neutrality #NetNeutrality

The FCC will likely vote to end net neutrality next week on December 14, 2017. The vote will quite probably be a partisan matter- 3 to 2 along party lines. It is not too late to make your voice heard on this matter.The loss of net…

The federal Office of Special Education Programs issued regulatory guidance today on the meaning and implications of the Endrew F decision by SCOTUS. The document is in question and answer format. There are twenty questions and answers.…

The Strange Ideas Found in Voucher Schools' Textbooks Are a Problem Reaching Well Beyond Just the Students Learning Them

Huffington Post's study of the curriculum offerings in private schools that participate in state run voucher and tax credit programs has set the internet ablaze. Huffington Post identified all of the private schools that receive voucher or…

As I was checking to confirm that my colleague Colin Miller's Evidence Prof Blog deservedly made the ABA Journal's new Top 100 list just as it had for the last several years, I was shocked to see the Education Law Prof Blog right next to it.…

New Report on Racial Bias in School Discipline Offers Great Prelude for Confirmation Hearing for the Head of the Office for Civil Right

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) released a new report last week on implicit bias in school discipline. It is a particularly efficient and straightforward report that should be easily accessible to the educators and…

Massachusetts Special Education Law Blog

A year ago, this student with dyslexia was anxious, depressed and hated going to school. She was not making progress in reading and was keenly aware of her learning differences. Now that she is in the right educational placement…

Yesterday, the Supreme Court decided, 8-0, in Fry v. Napoleon Community Schools, that families do not have to exhaust remedies under IDEA when rights are fully supported by the ADA and Section 504. This is a huge deal in the…

Educators, including teachers, professional support personnel, and administrators, are generally required to hold a license issued by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to be eligible for employment in public…

NSBA Executive Director & CEO Thomas J. Gentzel today released the following statement in response to Senate action related to President Trump’s proposed tax reform:
“NSBA is deeply troubled by the U.S. Senate’s version…

When people think of “urban education” in its most favorable light, they think of dedicated education professionals working hard in difficult conditions to eliminate the achievement gap by raising the academic achievement levels…

School districts readily accept their responsibility to provide a high quality public education for each and every student. It’s what they do. In the case of a child with a disability, school districts will develop and carry out an IEP,…

Parents Have The Right To Review Or Obtain Copies Of Their Child's School Record

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995School records created by a high school, elementary school, private school, or school district, can loom as an unknown for many parents. Parents often don't even…

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995School expulsion is NOT something any parent wants their child to endure. To be removed entirely from a school district to have to attend a "bad" school is not a fun…

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995Have you filed a complaint alleging discrimination or improper retaliation with the United States Department of Education (USDOE) and their Office for Civil Rights (OCR)…

Mass shootings keep happening. Mental illness is the easy answer but not the cause. Almost monthly we read about horrific shootings in Las Vegas, Orlando, or small towns in Texas and California. The subsequent finger pointing continues as to…

Special education advocates were excited with last March’s Supreme Court ruling on Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District and its determination that students must make “appropriately ambitious” progress in their special…

Milestones; what are they? We hear about them from the moment our children are diagnosed, for some, born. For most of us, they're not even mile"stones"; they're pebbles, fragments, grains of sand, achievements so small, so tiny, so minuscule…

You may have heard about recent legal action against ResearchGate brought by several large academic publishers organized under name of the “Coalition for Responsible Sharing” (Elsevier, Wiley, Wolters Kluwer, Brill, and ACS). Some…

Earlier today the U.S. Copyright Office released its long-awaited review of improvements to Section 108 of the Copyright Act, the section which grants limited, specific exceptions to copyright for libraries and archives. Over a decade…

Earlier today the U.S. Copyright Office released its long-awaited review of improvements to Section 108 of the Copyright Act, the section which grants limited, specific exceptions to copyright for libraries and archives. Over a decade…

Higher Ed IP Law Report

Two federal judges have blocked President Trump’s third try at implementing a nationwide travel ban. The first ruling blocking the administration from enforcing the September 24th Presidential Proclamation, which restricts travel into…

Two federal judges have blocked President Trump’s third try at implementing a nationwide travel ban. The first ruling blocking the administration from enforcing the September 24th Presidential Proclamation, which restricts travel into…

In a move that was foreshadowed by statements from the new administration, by letter dated September 22, 2017, the U.S. Education Department, Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced the withdrawal of the April 4, 2011 Dear…

Lex Ferenda

On intermediaries, at the Information Law and Policy Centre – 5 October 2017

Cross-posted from https://infolawcentre.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2017/10/10/internet-intermediaries-from-defamation-to-directive-to-data-protection/ Taking stock of recent developments concerning the liability and duties associated with being an…

Discourse and rhetoric around the ‘sharing economy’ is something that fascinates me, and I am hoping to do a larger project on the topic (subject to time, funding and the usual caveats). But the 2017 release of two songs…

My book Medium Law (Routledge) has just been published. It’s available in hardback (from the publisher and from various bookshops) and for Kindle and as a Google Play ebook, and an extract/summary is available here. Here’s the…

Engel & Martin, LLC has filed a Federal Lawsuit on behalf of five Hamilton Township, Ohio residents who allege that a Township Trustee violated the First Amendment when he blocked people from commenting on his Facebook page. Read the…

Anne Tamashasky has been recognized for exceptional performance by the The American Institute of Criminal Law Attorneys. Tamashasky was named as one of Ohio’s “10 Best Criminal Law Attorneys for Client…

A Federal Judge in Cincinnati has issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting Miami University from suspending a student who had been accused of sexual assault on the campus. The opinion is available here. The student, referred to as…

There are two times during the year that I get the most calls from parents of special needs students: (1) when IEPs are being developed in the spring, and (2) at the beginning of each school year when parents become concerned about whether…

Access to affordable, quality early childhood education is a critical piece missing from the education system in this country. Children from poor families who live in impoverished areas benefit significantly from quality early childhood…

In 2015, I was asked to serve on the State Advisory Board for Best Buddies Arkansas, the local affiliate to Best Buddies International. Founded by Anthony Shriver in 1989, Best Buddies International is the world’s largest…

The IDEA requires exhaustion of administrative remedies before bringing a due process complaint for the denial of a Free and Appropriate Education. But, what about a discrimination claim under the ADA or the Rehabilitation Act for the failure…

Governor Eric Greitens of Missouri, on Feb. 6, 2017, signed a Bill into law which makes Missouri the 28th right-to-work state. Under this new law, effective August 28, 2017, employers are barred from requiring employees to become, remain, or…

The answer is “yes” and “no.” The lives of parents caring for adult children with disabilities is already burdensome, and this change in the law adds an additional barrier such parents will have to overcome, but…

The U.S. Department of Education recently released a “Dear Colleague” Letter to clarify that all students who qualify, or would qualify, in their neighborhood school District for either an IEP under the I.D.E.A., or a Section 504…

Teenager with Disabilities Injured and Arrested by TSA Workers in Airport

Another sad reminder in the news, that caregivers of people with disabilities cannot presume that authority personnel will listen to or understand the caregiver’s guidance on how best to deal with a person’s disabilities. This sad…

The Second Circuit, in A.M. v. New York City Department of Education, held that where the school district developed an Individualized Education Program ("IEP") for an autistic child, that was against the clear consensus of the substance…

The question presented in this case is whether being disabled for purposes of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ("IDEA") categorically qualifies and individual as having a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act…

Prevailing Attorney Entitled to Fee From District Greater Than What He Would Have Been Paid Had He Lost

In Price v. District of Columbia, the parents seeking relief on behalf of their child under IDEA. They obtained counsel from the Juvenile Branch of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, which appointed an experienced…

Notice Regarding the Confidential Release of Student Records to Class Counsel in a Class Action

Please See the Notice Regarding the Confidential Release of Student Records to Class Counsel in a Class Action Litigation Involving Students with Autism and Students Attending State-Approved Non-Public Schools.

SRO 13-078: Parents disagreed with the placement and program offered by the NYC DOE for their autistic child. The parents developed a home based program and put the DOE on notice of their intent to hold the DOE financially responsible. There…

SRO dismisses DOE petition for filing administrative record 9 days late

SRO 13-170: Parent prevailed at hearing. The NYC DOE appealed to the SRO. The SRO dismissed the appeal sua sponte finding that the DOE’s nine day delay in filing the administrative record “impeded his ability to issue a timely and…

After several years of using portable audio recorders to record classes for students and Adobe Presenter to add narration to PowerPoint Presentations, Albany Law School has moved to the Panopto lecture capture system for these…

According to a recent study published in the Journal of Media Education, university students are not paying attention in class. They spend 20% of their time in class doing things on their digital devices that have nothing to do…

Recently, Campus Technology polled hundreds of education professionals to ask them which products they think are truly the best. So here’s what they said (in Campus Technology’s first-ever higher education…

Ignoring the Problem: Is AutoZone Indifferent to Workplace Sexual Harassment?

In December 2013, a victim of sexual harassment--a man--filed a charge with the EEOC, alleging that working in Autozone's Whiteville, North Carolina store, a female coworker:
created a hostile work environment based on Complainant's gender…

Ignoring the Problem: Is AutoZone Indifferent to Workplace Sexual Harassment?

In December 2013, a victim of sexual harassment–a man–filed a charge with the EEOC, alleging that working in Autozone’s Whiteville, North Carolina store, a female coworker: created a hostile work environment based on…

Ignoring the Problem: Is AutoZone Indifferent to Workplace Sexual Harassment?

In December 2013, a victim of sexual harassment–a man–filed a charge with the EEOC, alleging that working in Autozone’s Whiteville, North Carolina store, a female coworker: created a hostile work environment based on…

Education blogger Jim Horn, who doesn't let accuracy interfere with his eagerness to condemn charter schools, has yet another post decrying KIPP and similar schools for being eugenicist. He claims that what's going on is "cultural and…

In discussions over poverty and education policy in the United States, it is common to see international comparisons. These comparisons usually make the United States look quite bad -- i.e., 21% of our children are in poverty compared to 4%…

In a recent post, Diane Ravitch decries the fact that Chicago charters expel a higher percentage of kids than do the other public schools: The data reveal that during the last school year, 307 students were kicked out of charter schools,…

An Introduction to Special Education Law: Back to School Series – Eligibility and Evaluation

Eligibility and evaluations for special education services are governed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004, Section 1414 (the full text of 20 U.S.C. Section 1414 related to eligibility and evaluations is below the…

An Introduction to Special Education Law: Back to School Series – Eligibility and Evaluation

Eligibility and evaluations for special education services are governed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004, Section 1414 (the full text of 20 U.S.C. Section 1414 related to eligibility and evaluations is below the…

Dear Jim, Set your compass to join us on November 3rd and 4th for the Garden State Council-SHRM 17th Annual Conference and Exposition at the Ocean Place Resort & Spa in Long Branch, NJ. Our theme this year is: "HR:...

It has been a rough week for Timothy P. Asher, executive director of a campaign to get Missouri voters to ban the use of affirmative-action preferences by public colleges and other state and local agencies. On Sunday, Mr. Asherâ€™s…